No matter what kind of weighing machine you can think of: pallet scales, platform scales, food scales, etc.. They all have one key component that makes them work. The load cell.

The load cell has been around for decades and hasn't changed much in all that time. By change, I mean the kind of change that changed an industry — like happened when mechanical scales were replaced by electronic scales and the load cell about 40 years ago. Sure, we have digital and wireless, but I'm waiting for more than the normal evolution of a product...

An evil, once visited upon us during the latter days of the Obama administration, was narrowly defeated by the more rational thinkers in positions of authority along with very strong vocal and written support from just everyone in the business, academic and activist communities across the country. The evil of which I speak is the corporate attack upon Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is an issue that few of us rarely think about and often fail to adequately comprehend, even though the concept itself is as simple as apple pie to grasp: Net Neutrality proclaims that the conditions of internet access be applied EQUALLY to everyone that wishes to use it. I needed to really emphasize the word, “equally” because it seems to be the word most frequently overlooked by those who favor eliminating what is commonly referred to as “single-tier” internet access....

The ISWM Central/Northwest Division Meeting will be held on October 12-13, 2017 at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL. Please return your registration form to Deanna Stanley by September 12, 2017. Hotel reservations at the Pheasant Run Resort should be made by September 15, 2017. Questions? Contact Deanna Stanley at 715-234-9171 ext. 5080 or Tim Campbell at 715-234-9171 ext. 5067.

For many years now, most scales and balances have been built overseas and shipped to the USA from places such as Mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, even Poland and India. There has been a race to lower the cost of weighing equipment by placing orders overseas, and sometimes building factories in other countries. This price cutting marathon of the last two decades has caused many well-known companies to disappear from the industry, and several large overseas companies have made significant gains into the market.

Unfortunately, at the same time as reducing cost, we’ve been losing the battle to retain skills and employment here in the states. It wasn’t always like this—the USA produced excellent weighing equipment for more than a century—products that were copied by many producers overseas!​We’ve all heard the argument for bringing jobs back to the USA, and if you watch the news, you’ve also heard the protectionist view that we should increase duties against products from overseas or even ban imports.​However, there is another way, which preserves free trade while keeping costs down and bringing jobs back within our borders. That is, to once again produce equipment here. Companies like Pennsylvania Scale and Scientech have successfully managed to produce scales here for many years, despite the issues of labor costs and trying to source components locally. Theirs has been a lonely road to travel in the past decade or more, but things might be set to change...​

By Robert SombachOK I realize it sounds like an outrageous comparison, but give me a minute to explain how a national pizza franchise can give us some understanding about how people are changing their definition of customer service. In the scales industry, we’re all familiar with measurement. If our customer’s equipment is not providing accurate readings, we have the equipment to fix or recalibrate it. The equipment may be technologically advanced and quite expensive, but as we all know, over time it can become less accurate.

There’s a revolution underfoot that few of us are fully aware. Even fewer are vaguely cognizant of the promises (and dangers) that this revolution has in store for our entire species as we advance head-on into the middle of the 21st century. And when I use the phrase, “our species,” I hope that my words are not taken as simply melodramatic or hyperbolic rhetoric. The impact of this revolution is being felt throughout the globe, and its continuing development promises to be transformative in just about every respect.

When ‘Fabulous’ Las Vegas, Nevada welcomes ISWM’s 2018 Conference, travelers arriving through McCarran International Airport will find Pennsylvania M64 baggage scales and indicators throughout both terminals at all gates. By the end of 2017, Terminal 3, with its spectacular renovations will be a modern aviation travel showcase and will feature Pennsylvania baggage scales at all check-in locations...

Rinstrum’s new In Motion Axle Scale is a fast, accurate and economical way to weigh trucks and verify your net payload. The patented precast concrete design is semi portable and can be moved from jobsite to jobsite or permanently installed. Contractors, farmers and plant managers will find this low-cost scale indispensable to their operations. In many cases the ROI on this affordable scale is one-third that of a full-length truck scale...

DETECTO’s new Solace series USA-made in-floor scales are flush-mounted platform scales that feature stainless steel decks and include a pit frame, trim ring, and interface cable to the included multi-color, touchscreen LCD indicator and printer. These clinical scales easily accommodate patients with walkers, canes, wheelchairs, or seated in dialysis chairs, and they can also be used in laundry departments. The flush surface eliminates tripping hazards and hallway accessibility issues...

Anyload customized disk load cells (similar to the 363YH 200t and 300t) were used for an offshore oil exploration platform that was estimated to weigh between 2000 to 2300 tons. It was tested three times with less than a 0.2 percent error, which is lower than the 0.5 percent test error requirement for large structures such as this...